ST:E Alternate Scenes
by RCS
Summary: How scenes from various episodes should have happened, or a reasonable facsimile thereof.
1. Zero Hour Alternate Ending

A/N: I was more than a little put off at the way the episode "Zero Hour" went down. Particularly by the fact that the writers would have us believe that after almost a year of preparation to defend against an enemy seeking to destroy the planet, the people of Earth had gathered together for its defense...nothing. Zip. Zero. Nada. The only thing in orbit was a freakin' unarmed space station. And it was only put there by the writers so the Reptilians could destroy it to allow the humans on Degra's ship a little emoting. Well, this is how I think it should have happened.

ZERO HOUR: ALTERNATE ENDING

Captain Robert T. Hammond paced the bridge of the starship _Columbia_ (NX-02), the newest addition to Starfleet. A communication from the _Enterprise_, still in the Delphic Expanse, had warned Starfleet Command that the Xindi superweapon was on the way, escorted by two Xindi warships: one Reptilian, one Insectoid. As soon as they received word of the launch of the superweapon, the authorities of Earth had set the defense of the planet in motion.

Earth was as ready as she will ever be, Hammond thought. Over the course of the last year, priority had been placed on _Columbia_'s completion. While the overall hull frame was the same, _Columbia_ was not built as an explorer like her older sister _Enterprise_ had been. _Columbia_ was a pure combatant, reconfigured during construction with the Xindi's impending attack in mind. In addition to added armaments, _Columbia_ boasted Vulcan shields.

Our allies had finally come through for us, Hammond decided as he peered out the view screen at the Vulcan ship _Ni'Var_ that hovered off the _Columbia_'s port bow. Hammond had always felt it ironic that the Vulcans would get into a shooting war with the Andorians over a dustball of a planet, but they at first wouldn't lift a finger to defend their _allies_ from genocide.

Someone in the Vulcan High Command had developed a backbone, and just in time.

_Columbia_ and _Ni'Var_ were not alone. Over the last year Starfleet had recalled every starship in the fleet. Most of the warp-one or warp-two capable ships wouldn't arrive in time, but a good assortment of ships were in Earth's orbit. Several orbital stations, bristling with phase cannons and torpedo tubes, had been placed in strategic places around the planet. Old missile silos had been reactivated and loaded with rockets to carry volleys of photonic torpedoes into space.

Hammond's first officer, Commander Scott Goldman, stood beside him. "According to Starfleet Command's calculation, judging from the _Enterprise_'s observations of Xindi corridor transits, the weapon should be dropping into normal space sometime today."

"Any word from Archer?" Hammond asked in his baritone Texan accent.

"Last communications from _Enterprise_ indicated Captain Archer was aboard a Xindi-Primate ship pursuing the weapon."

Hammond shook his head. This entire operation had been poorly planned. _Enterprise_ never should have attempted to attack the weapon. Though she was the best ship in Starfleet (until _Columbia_), the _Enterprise_ was still one lone out-matched, out-classed ship tangling with superior numbers and superior technology. After his men had obtained the intelligence on the weapon while it was still submerged on that Xindi-Aquatic planet, Archer should have gone balls to the wall to speed back to Earth to deliver the intelligence.

What had Archer accomplished? Nothing, except succeed in getting himself captured and his ship turned into a crippled wreck that was now in no position to defend Earth. Granted, his foolhardiness could now in hindsight be excused because he had turned some of the Xindi races to their side, but that still doesn't detract from the fact that his actions were wholly irresponsible.

Hammond's was a minority voice in Starfleet, an organization of idealistic explorers. Although the Vulcans had been generally benevolent, Hammond was one of the handful of Starfleet officers who believed that not all the aliens to be encountered by mankind would be like the Vulcans. Many could very well be aggressive and pose a danger to Earth. Even with the belligerence posed by races like the Klingons and the Suliban and others, no one was willing to propose a fleet of pure combatants for Starfleet.

Hammond and those like him advanced slowly in Starfleet, and Hammond saw younger, more idealistic men like Archer and A.G. Robinson pass him by. Robinson, a runner-up to take command of _Enterprise_, had been slated to take command of _Columbia_ until his untimely demise.

Then the Xindi's prototype weapon had wiped out seven million people in Florida and Venezuela, and Starfleet Command rushed to complete _Columbia_. Ironically, the man whom they had wanted to drum out of the service for his archaic ideas was tapped to command Starfleet's newest ship.

The crewman manning the sensor console looked up from his instruments. "Captain, we have an energy signature on sensors. Two vessels are entering normal space just within the lunar orbit."

"Battle stations, all ships," Hammond commanded.

Admiral Forrest had given tactical command of the defense fleet to Hammond. As the ships went to battle stations, the captain of the _Ni'Var_ contacted _Columbia_. At Hammond's direction the Vulcan was patched through, and the alien's face appeared on the main viewer.

"Archer said there were two ships with the weapon," Captain Serak said. "The Xindi-Insectoid vessel seems to be missing."

"One less worry for us, Captain," Hammond said. "Our first target is that Reptilian ship. Get it out of the way."

"We'll follow your lead, Captain."

The viewer's image returned to the field of stars. The ships of the defense force were at battle stations.

_Columbia_ and _Ni'Var_ led the attack, probing the Xindi warship with phase cannon beams and volleys of photonic torpedoes. The _Columbia_ shuddered under the Xindi's return salvoes, but the Vulcan shields enshrouding her held.

A blast from the _Ni'Var_'s cannons succeeded in disabling the Xindi ship's engines, and _Columbia_ delivered the coup de grace by slamming a wave of torpedoes into the foundering ship's hull. The Xindi vessel disintegrated under sequential explosions.

The rest of the defense fleet, meanwhile, pounced on the Xindi weapon. Phase cannon blasts and photonic torpedoes peppered the spherical vessel. _Columbia_ and _Ni'Var_ joined in with their own firepower.

The orbital stations opened fire, sending waves of photonic torpedoes into the enemy weapon. The ground-based missile silos launched their rockets, and once clear of Earth's atmosphere they disgorged their torpedo payloads. More and more photonic torpedoes poured into the weapon as the orbital stations and ground-based silos unleashed their hellish fury.

Overwhelmed by the firepower of Earth's defenders, the Xindi weapon finally exploded in a brilliant flash. Hammond ordered the fleet to maintain battle stations for a few minutes more, just in case the Xindi had a surprise or two heading through that subspace corridor, or whatever the hell it was. Surely, bent on genocide, the Xindi would have sent more than one ship to protect the most important asset to their plan.

"We have another ship on sensors," the man at the scanner console reported. "It's Xindi. She's a small little bugger."

"They're hailing us," the comms officer said. "It's Captain Archer."

"Put him on," Hammond said.

Archer's face appeared on the screen, the backdrop behind him unfamiliar.

"What the hell are you doing aboard that ship, Jon?" Hammond asked.

"My plan was to board the Xindi weapon and destroy it from the inside," Archer said, "but your way works too."

"We weren't sitting on our thumbs here while you were gallivanting around the Delphic Expanse."

"I can see that," Archer said with a smile.

A corner of Hammond's lip turned up. "Contrary to popular belief, Jon, _Enterprise_ isn't the only ship in Starfleet."

Archer glanced at someone to his right. "I think my hosts are itching to get back. There are a lot of Starfleet ships here who may yet have some itchy trigger fingers for a Xindi target."

"_Columbia_ is fully operational. I could take you back and escort _Enterprise_ home."

Archer shook his head. "The Aquatics are going to carry her home in the belly of one of their ships. You should see them, Bob, those things are huge."

"Hurry back. Hammond out."

"Archer out."


	2. Twilight Alternate Scene

To answer Sam McEvoy's question: Yes, it would have made better TV. Look at _Stargate SG-1_'s seventh season ender for a prime example. _That_ was good TV. The dogfight over Antarctica alone was worth the price of admission, so to speak. I just find it ironic that the early twenty-first-century humans in _Stargate SG-1 _put up more of a fight to defend their planet (granted, with technology "borrowed" from aliens, but the point is they made the effort) than did the mid-twenty-second-century humans of _Star Trek: Enterprise_.

But to tell you the God's honest truth, Sam, the episode as it aired was a huge letdown for me. When you have a season-long story arc revolving around protecting your planet from destruction and your race from genocide, I expect a little more firepower to be waiting for the enemy when they make their attack. Again, look at _Stargate SG-1_'s episode "The Lost City" for a well done and exciting battle for Earth.

Sam's and Zippy's defense of the boarding action brings up another contention I have with the starship battles as written by the _Star Trek _writers. They rely too heavily on boarding actions, even when boarding actions are entirely unnecessary. And you can write an exciting battle scene without a boarding action. Luke Skywalker and Lando Calrissian each destroyed a Death Star in _Star Wars_ and _Return of the Jedi_, respectively. And get this--they did it _without leaving the cockpits of their ships_. Yet, those were still exciting combat sequences.

The overuse of the boarding action became blatantly obvious in the episode "Twilight." That was one of those alternate timeline episodes (yet another overused device in _Star Trek_) where Archer loses his short term memory each day due to some weird out-of-the-spacetime-continuum microbes. In that alternate timeline, years after the Xindi succeed in destroying Earth and most human colonies, the remnants of humanity are taking refuge on Ceti Alfa V (yes, that Ceti Alfa V). The Xindi track these refugees down and attack. By the end of this alternate timeline scene the _Enterprise_ is reduced to a wreck with no weapons and her bridge blasted to dust. So what do the Xindi do to complete the genocide of those humans still alive aboard _Enterprise_? Do they fire off a few more rounds to blow her and all aboard her to smithereens? No, they board her to kill the survivors face to face, thus risking their boarders to unnecessary harm by the _Enterprise_'s defenders. Remember, the Xindi were out to eliminate humanity. What possible, logical reason would they have to board a dying ship that was a few gunfire blasts away from being space dust? The only plausible answer is so that the writers would have an excuse for a deck to deck phaser battle to kill off the alternate timeline main characters. And then we could get back to the real timeline where everyone is back to normal.

Who gives a damn about General Hammond, Katie? I do. He's one of my favorite _Stargate SG-1 _characters, second perhaps only to that ol' wise-ass Jack O'Neill, and I hate to see him go.

In regards to the _Columbia_ popping up a lot in my works, it's pure happenstance. I named one of the ships in my original fic in honor of the lost space shuttle and her brave crew. In the ST:E episode when the _Enterprise_ crew meets their descendants, I noted Hoshi's remark upon first seeing the second _Enterprise_ that it was not the _Columbia_ (i.e., NX-02). The end of season two showed the construction progress of NX-02, and it looked like she could be completed in a year. Especially if the shipyard crews were busting ass to complete her before the impending Xindi attack. That's how I ended up choosing _Columbia_ for the main ship in this story.

Now on to the fic:

ALTERNATE SCENE FOR "TWILIGHT"

The Reptilian captain peered at the view screen, which showed the image of the battered Earth ship adrift without weapons, drives, or even a bridge. The _Enterprise_ had been reduced to a hulk by the combined onslaught of the Xindi ships, and it was the last thing that stood between the Xindi and total annihilation of the humans living on the colony.

"Every human aboard that ship must die," the captain said. "Prepare a boarding party."

"Captain," the first officer said. "I have a better idea to eliminate the humans on that ship without risking our soldiers."

"What is it?"

The first officer gestured to a console. "With your permission?"

The captain nodded. The first officer moved to the console and shouldered aside the crewman who manned the station. He worked the controls, and a white hot flash of energy streaked between the Reptilian ship and the Earth ship. The beam drilled through the _Enterprise_'s hull into the warp core. The Earth ship vanished in a white fireball.

The first officer looked to his captain in satisfaction.

"Set course for the colony," the captain said, feeling a little foolish for even thinking of an unnecessary boarding action.

Note: yes, probably not as exciting as showing the Xindi stalking the last of the humans phase pistol to phase pistol, but if you're out to kill an entire race wouldn't you do it the easiest possible way with the least risk to those of your own race?


	3. Two Cents

Ah yes, this is getting interesting. And entertaining. It's actually a change of pace to discuss something as meaningless as a TV show instead of the heavy topic of politics. That being said, I have to put in two additional cents on Zippy's comments.

If the Sphere-Builders made the microbes and ordered the Reptilians to specifically assassinate Archer, hence the boarding party, then that's what might be called a _major plot point_. If this is, in fact, the premise behind the boarding party, then the fact that the writers left it out of the episode points to an even worse error on the part of the episode's writers than the extraneous use of a tactically unnecessary boarding action. Tactically speaking, the Reptilians should have blown the _Enterprise_ out of space and be done with it. And if they're worried about people escaping--well, any society with the technological prowess to design and deploy a planet-buster _should_ be able to target and eliminate any escaping life pods and shuttlecraft at point blank range. "Twilight" was just a poorly written episode all around--even more poorly written than "Zero Hour." However, I do have to give it points for showing that T'Pol _can_ look hot in a Starfleet uniform.

There is an even worse plot hole with "Twilight," however. Destroying the microbes "hit the reset button," so to speak, because they existed simultaneously at all times throughout that particular timeline. Destroying them effectively eliminated them from history as if they never even existed, which reset the timeline back to the time of Archer's initial infection (the show's "present day"). If that's the case, then how in the hell could Phlox and T'Pol remember that the first treatment worked? They remembered the fact that the scans taken throughout the time period of Archer's infection, even those in the past, showed fewer microbes after the treatment. They shouldn't have remembered that because, for all intents and purposes, those microbes "never existed" for the same reason the total elimination of said microbes "reset the timeline." Phlox would have chalked up the unchanged number of microbes--from his perspective--to failure and went to work on discovering another procedure, totally oblivious that it had worked.

To set the record straight, I have nothing against boarding parties per se. As long as there is a tactically viable reason for doing so. Boarding actions in the naval battles during the days of sail were good ways to capture enemy ships to add to your own fleet.

Through most of the _Stargate SG-1 _series the only means Stargate Command had available to even dent a Goauld facility was via Stargate infiltration. Their tactical options were limited by technology. The Star Trek universe, even as depicted in ST:E, has no such limitation. They can warp spacetime to travel to other stars, for God's sake, you mean to tell me they don't have the technological know-how to mount a crap-load of high-yield warheads on twenty-century-era rocketry to deliver a crap-load of firepower against the incoming Xindi Death Asteroid before it gets anywhere close to Earth's orbit? There's a lot of land on Earth to mount ground-based weapons, and they had a friggin' year to prepare. The episode before "Zero Hour" already showed that the Death Asteroid could be harmed by external firepower when it was attacked by those big Xindi-Aquatic motherhumpers.

And where were all of Starfleet's ships? "Twilight" and other episodes showed that they had several--enough for a convoy to protect the refugee ships. _Intrepid_ and _Saratoga_ were mentioned by name in a couple of episodes. And then there was _Columbia_ (NX-02), which at the end of last season looked fairly close to having her hull completed. It shouldn't take longer than a year for a shipyard to outfit her machinery when Archer and company were able to build and install _Enterprise_'s phase cannons on the fly in season one, particularly if the yardworkers knew they had to get _Columbia_ operational before the Xindi came back with a weapon even bigger than the one that carved up the Caribbean.

Yet, all they had to defend themselves after a year's preparation was absolutely nothing. Earth was devoid of any defenses for one reason only: to give the writers a reason to put Archer and company on the Death Asteroid to destroy it from the inside. As a reviewer pointed out, Earth's leaders should be ousted for gross incompetence. Then again, maybe it was the UN running things, which would explain why Earth had zip, zero, nada in the way of defenses, and they put their eggs in one fragile basket when they sent _Enterprise_ into the Delphic Expanse alone.

Another sign of the incompetence of both Starfleet and Earth's leaders. _Enterprise_'s mission never should have been search-and-destroy. She was one ship going up against an entire society that could design a planet-busting superweapon. It should have been a recon mission only. They obtained the plans for the Death Asteroid when they infiltrated the Aquatic world aboard that Insectoid shuttle. They should have pulled a Princess Leia and took the intelligence back to Earth so that they could mount a proper defense with all available assets instead of attempt that foolhardy suicide mission that Archer attempted. The story wouldn't have had to sacrifice action and excitement in implementing a recon role for _Enterprise_. Suspense can be created by putting obstacles in their way as they attempted to leave the Delphic Expanse with the plans in R2-D2's…I mean the ship's memory. Would they get back to Earth with the critical information before the Xindi deployed the weapon? Tune in next week.


End file.
